Human
by delena-stefarine
Summary: Slightly AU. A series of unexpected and life changing events has brought Elena here- racing for her life to find him. But where is he, how can she get to him, and even if she does find him- will it be too late? Rated M for stuff down the road. Delena.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I own none of these characters. I am simply borrowing them for my own purposes. Enjoy. And I won't bite you for giving feedback... Just so you know :)**

The rain pelted her face as she ran, obscuring her vision. The sound of the rain pouring down around her combined with the pounding of her own feet on the pavement and her audible, racing heartbeat created an ominous soundtrack for her desperate search. Her breathing was becoming increasingly ragged, and her legs felt heavy beneath her.

A dangerous thought entered her mind- she didn't know how much longer she could keep running; her body had reached ints physical breaking point. But as soon as the thought came into her mind, she pushed it back out again. Stopping wasn't an option, because she knew that when she stopped, it would be over. She would lose him. Forever.

The thought of this possibility brought tears to her eyes, but she fought them back forcefully. Between the rain and the inky darkness of the night, her vision had more than enough to contend with already. She choked back a sob and screamed his name into the all too empty blackness for the thousandth time that night.

"DAMON!" Her voice cracked and she shouted his name again and again, willing him, wherever he was, to hear her. She prayed, more than she had ever prayed for anything before, for some sign that there was still a glimmer of hope, the slightest chance that the most important person in her world was not lost and gone forever.

She had been running for hours in what she could only hope was the right direction. Stefan had told her everything he could to try and put her on the right path. He did, after all, know Klaus better than anyone. Or at least anyone Elena trusted. The fear had been itching at the back of her mind that Elijah or Rebekah would have been able to help her, give her more reliable information about where to look. But the question hadn't been whether they could give her that information; it was whether they even would. But it was too late to wonder about that now. She had come so far that it was useless to think about other possible paths anymore.

The rain was letting up now. This brought Elena a minuscule amount of relief, since it was one less obstacle she had to overcome. Within 10 minutes, the rain had stopped altogether. The absence of the rain allowed Elena to take in her surroundings more fully than she had before. The pavement of the road carved a winding path through the woods. These woods, which were set back from the road by only a matter of feet, were thin enough to see a good distance into them, and yet dense enough to hide what she was so desperately looking for. She slowed her pace to a jog, trying to look more closely into the woods around her, while also attempting to regain her breath, which was now coming in short, sharp spurts.

She felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She was soaked to the bone, so the fact that her phone was still functioning struck her as miraculous. She slowed to a walk as she pulled it out and answered it after seeing the caller's identity.

"Caroline," she said through still ragged breathing.

"Elena! Any news? Where are you? Are you alright? Have you found him? Have you heard from Stefan? Or Katherine? Or anyone?" Elena didn't know if it was the lack of air in her lungs or all of her best friend's panicked questions, but she felt her head spinning and thought her knees were going to give out beneath her. But she willed herself to keep walking. There was worry in Caroline's voice that sent a fresh wave of grief washing over Elena. There was also an edge of desperation that told Elena unmistakably that even Caroline, the eternal optimist, was quickly giving up hope. Elena was, after all, trying to do the impossible.

The gravity of the situation hit her for the first time and Elena crumpled to the ground, her body wracked by violent sobs. Yet again she struggled for breath, and for the first time that night it had nothing to do with the physical strain of running. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt why she couldn't breathe: her world was quickly crumbling around her. And here she was, running blindly through the middle of nowhere toward a destination that she didn't know in order to try and keep it from completely crashing to the ground. It terrified her that she was so close to losing everything, but it terrified her even more that her everything was so wrapped up into one person. One arrogant, beautiful, impulsive, loving, reckless, witty, protective, sarcastic, sometimes unbearable, perfect person. And now her perfect person, her everything, was god only knows where in god only knows what condition. Even if, by some miracle, she found him, how did she even know that he wouldn't be past the point of saving? Everything just felt so hopeless.

"Elena? Are you there? Are you alright? Where are you? I'm coming to find you." Caroline's voice snapped Elena out of her thoughts. She fought to control her breathing enough to speak.

"I lost him, Care. What's the point? He could be anywhere. I was so stupid to think I could find him. And now I've lost him forever and I don't know what to do," Elena choked out through her sobs.

"Elena. Listen to me. Try to breathe. Where are you?" The panic in Caroline's voice was even more evident now. Elena looks up to try and get some sense of her location. She looked around and could find no sign of where exactly she had ended up. All she saw was the road, the trees, and the seemingly infinite darkness. She couldn't even remember the last time she had passed a road sign that would give her some indication of where she was.

And then she saw it. A burst of color at the edge of the dark woods, so out of place in these otherwise colorless surroundings. It had no reason to be there, other than someone putting it there. She rose unsteadily, her legs screaming in resistance against supporting her. She walked slowly to the strange spot at the edge of the woods. She bent to touch the soft purplish blue flowers and knew instantly what they meant. She finally realized that Caroline was practically screaming her name on the other end of the phone.

"Vervain," Elena said, but it came out as barely more than a whisper.

"What?"

"Vervain," she repeated with more confidence. "There's vervain here. In the middle of nowhere. Caroline it must mean something. I must be close. I have to go." She vaguely registered Caroline frantically asking what sounded like a million questions before she ended the call and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

She straightened up and looked intently into the woods before her. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before. Almost the entire forest floor was covered in vervain flowers. Areas the size of football fields with only small, random patches of vervain-free ground poking through to separate them. Her heart was racing again, and she took off running into the woods. Suddenly, she felt as if she had a fresh pair of legs, and her breath came easily. With no idea whether it was adrenaline or a newfound glimmer of hope propelling her forward, she ran deeper and deeper into the woods, frantically scanning every inch she could see as she ran.

She kept as straight of a path as possible as she carved her way through the vervain-filled woods. What struck her about the vervain "fields" was that they weren't random patches of the flower that grew by chance; they were carefully plotted, as if someone else had left them as a reminder of how to find their way back to a place Elena hoped wouldn't be far away. The real question was what she would find when she arrived there. She tried to ignore the fact that she could be following what seemed like an obvious sign and still not find him at the end of it all.

The trees were becoming more and more dense, but luckily this made the vervain stand out even more. The patches themselves were getting smaller and farther apart, and at several points she had to slow down and retrace her steps to make sure that she hadn't deviated from the vervain-guided path. The darkness had been fading quickly and she could see the faint glow of a sunrise through the dense trees. She put her hand in her pocket to ensure the safety of the item that was becoming more important by the minute. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the cold, ornately carved metal and stone of Damon's ring. She pulled it out and enclosed her fist around it tightly, not willing to take any risks.

She pressed on, racing toward the ever-rising sun, calling his name as she ran. All of a sudden, she burst through the trees and into a small clearing of no more than 10 feet in diameter. The flowers that had marked her path into the woods covered almost the entire clearing.

For the first time, it crossed Elena's mind that maybe the flowers that had helped her find this place served a far more malicious purpose than simply marking a path. It became overwhelmingly obvious to her that they were in place to keep someone in. Or out. No vampire could ever get through the patches of vervain unharmed. They would either be trapped in this place, or unable to get to it.

The clearing was empty, but possessed signs of not having been so for long. The muddy ground and trampled flowers showed heavy footprints, and there was a pile of waterlogged sticks that had clearly been a fire in the recent past. Elena looked around frantically, wondering where to go from here. Besides for the flowers that filled the small clearing, and the ones in the direction from which she had just come, she saw no more patches of vervain to lead her on further into the woods. This must have been the place where the flowers had been leading. But its emptiness stripped her off the last bits of hope to which she had been clinging for dear life.

She was overwhelmed by the feeling of total loss, and she sunk to her knees on the cold, muddy ground. It really was over. She had lost him forever. Everything was her fault, and she would never be able to take it back or tell him how much she loved him. She could only pray that he knew. That he was her world and everything she had done that led them to this point was out of love for him. She hoped he knew how sorry she was, for everything she had ever done and put him through.

She knelt on the ground, sinking into the mud, and tried to wrap her mind around the fact that she would never see him again, that from now on her world would be one without Damon Salvatore in it. She didn't know how to live in a world like that. She was so angry with herself for letting it come to this. She let out a scream of anger, desperation, and anguish. She opened her still clenched fist to look at Damon's ring. The physical reminder of him made her head spin, and she flung the ring as far as she could into the trees before her.

Immediately after doing so, she was filled with regret. The one physical thing that still connected her to him, and she had just thrown it away. She rose and entered the densely treed area, scanning the ground carefully for the ring, cursing herself all the while for being so impulsive. She finally found the ring about 20 feet into the woods, and she wiped it on her shirt before slipping it carefully back into her pocket. She scanned the woods trying to figure out what to do, where to go, how to move on from this. If she even could move on from this.

And then she saw him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the figure of a man lying on his stomach. Elena's heart seemed to burst out of chest and pull her through space, faster than she ever thought she could move, toward him. Within a matter of seconds she had closed the 50 some yards between them and was kneeling beside the man. She braced herself before placing a hand on his shoulder and rolling him gently over onto his back.

She was face to face with Damon Salvatore. His eyes were closed and his mouth hung slightly ajar. His body was limp and still carried the scars of vervain burns. She didn't know yet exactly what condition he was in, but he was in front of her. By some miracle, she had found him. She quickly pulled his ring from her pocket and slipped it on his hand, not wanting to take any chances with sun continuing to penetrate the dense trees more and more.

Elena ran her hands over Damon's face and body, trying to determine how much damage had been done. She didn't know what to do next. In her frantic search for him, she had never actually stopped to think of what she would do in the unlikely event that she actually found him. She was too overwhelmed with both relief and lingering terror to figure out what her next move should be. She collapsed forward, her head on Damon's chest, hugging him for dear life, trying with all of her might to discover the next step in all of this.

She suddenly realized that something didn't feel right. The eerie quiet had been penetrated by a sound that was both extremely familiar and very out of place. She straightened up and listened intently, but heard nothing. Only the sound of a few birds far off in the distance signaling the arrival of morning. And her own heartbeat. But her heartbeat was no longer the only one. She looked around anxiously, wondering how someone could be close enough that she could hear their heartbeat but not see them.

Until it hit her. It seemed impossible, but there was no other possible explanation. She slowly bent forward until her head was on Damon's chest again. It was faint and irregular, but it was unmistakeable.

The second heartbeat belonged to Damon.

****Alrighty. First chapter! Cliffhanger! Gasp. Feedback/reviews are HIGHLY encouraged, and incredibly helpful. Things may seem confusing. Everything will be explained. Don't get something? Ask. If I don't flat out answer a question, it's because it will be answered in an upcoming chapter. Stay tuned! The more feedback I get, the faster I'll be motivated to continue :)****

****xoxo****


	2. Chapter 2

***Author's note: Thanks for the feedback so far on the first chapter. Glad you all like it! Here is chapter two. Sorry for taking a while to update. Feedback is appreciate, and encouraged. The more feedback, the faster I'm motivated to update :)**

Elena couldn't remember time ever passing more slowly than it did while she waited for Caroline to come. She had called and tried her best to communicate the path she had taken in her search the night before, telling Caroline about the road through the woods and the tell-tale vervain at the edge of the woods. Now all she could do was wait.

She had run for hours the night before, but she had very little sense of how much distance she had actually covered. She looked down at the still unconscious Damon and examined his features. His beauty still never failed to take her breath away, but now there was something different. She had memorized his face long ago, and yet she couldn't put her finger on what had changed.

But then it seemed obvious to her. He was pale, too pale.

Deathly pale.

She put her head to his chest again and she was mildly reassured that his heartbeat was still drumming a feeble rhythm in his chest. She willed Caroline to hurry, knowing that if this heartbeat meant Damon was somehow human again, the weakness of that heartbeat meant he didn't have much time.

Suddenly Elena realized a drastic flaw in this rescue plan. The vervain path that she had followed to find Damon had been crucial to her, but she reminded herself of the other purpose she had decided it was probably mean to serve- keeping a vampire in, or out. She had to move Damon to somewhere Caroline could get to them.

She scrambled to her feet, trying to pull Damon up with her. She struggled to hold his weight and was able to move only a matter of inches before she collapsed to the ground again, with Damon in her arms.

She hugged him closely to her and didn't attempt to fight the tears that came rushing to the surface. It was so unfair. She had come this far. She had found him. By some miracle, she had found him but not here they were, on the brink of being saved, and it was becoming less likely by the second. His feebly beating heart became like a timer to her, ticking down the moments until it was all over. She quickly grew to both love and hate that sound.

Then another noise echoed to her through the trees. A car sped through the woods, came screeching to a halt, and cut its engine. She heard the slamming of car doors and heard her name.

"Elena!" Caroline's voice rang through the trees. Elena rose to her feet quickly.

"Caroline, you can't get to us. There's vervain everywhere. You won't be able to get through!" she yelled back to her best friend.

"It's okay, Elena, she's coming to get you!" Elena didn't understand. Who was coming?

She heard the rustling of leaves and in a manner of seconds she saw her, bursting through the trees and across the clearing as little more than a blur. A moment later, she was standing still before her, eyes that were eerily similar to her own darting back and forth between Damon and herself.

"Katherine" Elena breathed silently. Of course. She had built up her resistance to vervain. The football field-sized patches of it were no match for her.

"Is he alive?" Katherine asked, her gaze now intently fixed upon Damon's face.

Elena stammered for a moment, trying to figure out how to answer. Before she could find the words, Katherine bent and lifted his body with ease, draping him across her back. In doing so, she must have felt or heard his heartbeat, because her head snapped up and her eyes met Elena's.

"Is that…" she trailed off, confusion evident on her face.

"Yeah. I think that-" Elena started, but Katherine cut her off.

"We have to go. I can't carry you both. Can you run" Katherine said quickly. Elena nodded silently and without another word Katherine turned and took off back through the woods. Elena ran as quickly as her legs could carry her, but still trailed far behind them.

She could hear Katherine and Caroline's voices carrying through the otherwise dead-silent woods, accompanied by the opening and shutting off car doors and the car's engine roaring to life. A few moments later, she heard rustling of leaves again and Katherine appeared before her.

"Come on. We've got to hurry," she said as she grabbed Elena and swung her over her shoulder as she had done with Damon. She ran the rest of the way through the woods with Elena clinging to her neck.

When they got to the car, Caroline was already in the driver seat. Katherine opened the passenger door and dumped Elena in the front seat before sliding into the backseat with Damon. She watched Katherine bite her own wrist and bring it to Damon's lips, blood running into his mouth, an act that would definitely help him if he was somehow human. As Caroline sped through the woods, Elena looked back at Damon being fussed over by his former love and felt her heart drop into her stomach.

Elena had never felt more useless in her life. Sure, she had found him. But there was nothing she could do for him. She couldn't save him. Katherine had been able to carry him out of the woods when she hadn't. She could help him more than Elena could. What was the point in fighting that? Katherine was with Stefan, and she was better for him than Elena ever had been. But it also seemed obvious that Katherine was also better for Damon than Elena could ever be.

Lost in her own thoughts, Elena vaguely registered that Caroline and Katherine were discussing what to do next. They had apparently agreed that he should be taken to the hospital, in hopes that he was "human" enough to receive normal treatment there. She heard them start to discuss what kind of accident could justify his condition, but Elena tuned out.

She replayed in her mind what had brought them here. Things were supposed to be better. Things had been going well, and she had been so sure that everything was going to be okay.

True, it had always seemed unlikely that Klaus was actually on their side. But with Mikael coming into the picture, it had seemed to awaken something in Klaus. He had removed the dagger from Elijah. He, Elijah, and Rebekah all swore their loyalty to helping them kill Mikael. And for a while it had started to seem like it was all going to work out.

As she thought through all the pieces of the puzzle, Elena knew that there must be something they were all missing. Otherwise why would Klaus have rejoined Mikael's side without any warning? Abandoning his brother and sister? It just didn't make sense, unless there was something going on that none of them knew about.

All Elena knew was that Klaus had betrayed them. She had watched him as he killed Matt, and then Jeremy. And then he kidnapped Damon, leading to her frantic search for him the night before.

She knew the pieces of the puzzle, but she didn't understand how they all went together. She was wracked by sobs at the thought of what her life had become. Just over a year ago she had lost her parents, then she lost Jenna. And now Matt. And Jeremy.

Jeremy. The image of his body falling to the ground, limp and lifeless flashed before her eyes and she slammed them shut, trying to shut out the memory. But even with her eyes closed she saw his face. Heard him yelling her name just seconds before he was killed. She knew that the memories of those moments would never leave her.

She had tried her best to keep thoughts of Jeremy as far from her mind as possible last night, because she knew that the second she gave in to them she would be lost. She couldn't, and didn't even want to, imagine life without Jeremy. Despite their sibling disagreements and all the ups and downs, he was the last family she had. Not only that, but he had been the most loving, compassionate, brave, loyal person she had ever known. His life was just starting. And now, because of her, it was over. She hated herself. She wished more than anything that she could take Jeremy's place. That it had been her that had died. She would do anything, give anything, to bring him back. To give him the life that he deserved; a long, happy life filled with people who love him. A life that he was robbed of. She knew, no matter how happy she ever was in her life, that she would miss him every second of every day until she died. And that was something she didn't know if she could handle.

She had no family. She had lost them all. And now she was on the edge of losing Damon, because she hadn't been strong enough to save him. And Jeremy had died because she had trusted Klaus. It was her fault. It was all her fault. Jenna, Matt, Jeremy, her parents. All of their deaths were her fault.

She suddenly felt a hand on her knee. She looked up and saw Caroling staring at her, with her face full of concern. Elena hadn't even registered that the car had stopped. They were parked in front of Mystic Falls Hospital, and Damon and Katherine had disappeared from the backseat.

"Elena. Are you okay?" Caroline's voice broke and Elena could see the tears in her best friends eyes. "It's going to be alright. Katherine took Damon inside; they're going to help him. He'll be okay." Caroline tried her best to reassure her, but her voice wasn't as steady as Elena knew she was trying to make it. And her hands shook as she rubbed Elena's knee comfortingly.

"No it's not, Care. Because even if Damon lives, I did this to him, it's all my fault. And Matt. And Jere-" Elena tried to choke out through her sobs, but her voice gave out and she was hit by waves of grief and guilt so overwhelming she could barely breathe, let alone speak.

In an instant Caroline was outside of Elena's car door, opening it and pulling her up and into a tight hug. Elena clung to her best friend's neck and buried her head in her shoulder.

"We should go inside and see what's going on," Caroline said quietly. Elena nodded silently continued to cling to her, and Caroline wrapped an arm around her waist and gave her the support that she knew Elena needed as they walked toward the hospital doors. Elena tried to control her breathing and fight back the seemingly never-ending tears.

The automatic doors opened as they approached and Elena picked up her head to register that Stefan, Katherine and Tyler were all sitting together. Stefan practically ran over to them and scooped Elena up into his arms, and Caroline quickly made her way over to Tyler's outstretched arms. Stefan set Elena down in a chair and sat next to her, holding both of her hands in one of his and rubbing her back with the other.

"Are you okay, Elena?" He said, and while Elena appreciated his concern she also was more than tired of people asking her this. How was she ever supposed to be okay? She quickly scolded herself for thinking this. Stefan cared about her, he was looking out for her. She took a couple of deep breaths and looked up at him, grateful more now than she ever had been to have him as a friend.

"Not really. I did all of this, Stefan. And now if Damon dies, I'll never be able to forgive myself," she said shakily. She looked away from him again and fixed her gaze on the floor in front of her.

"Elena, he's going to be alright. They'll take care of him and everything will be okay. And none of this is your fault. None of us could have known that any of this would happen, so there was nothing we could do to stop it," Stefan said reassuringly, his hand tracing comforting circles on Elena's back. Elena felt a little relief that Stefan didn't hate her for doing this to his brother, or at least if he did hate her she was glad he didn't show it.

Just then, a doctor approached their group, asking for Stefan.

"You're Damon's brother, correct?" Stefan nodded. He took Stefan gently by the arm and led him a short distance away from the rest of them, and starting talking to him quietly. Elena couldn't make out what they were saying, but soon Katherine was sitting by her side, quietly whispering to her what the doctor was saying.

"He says that Damon was almost completely drained of blood, and he doesn't know how someone could have survived with that much blood loss. But he's alive, apparently very much human, and is getting a blood transfusion as we speak. Damon also has some internal injuries, but nothing that should delay his healing too significantly. You'll be able to go see him soon." Katherine squeezed Elena's hand, and she had never been more grateful toward her. She turned slightly in her chair and wrapped her arms around Katherine's neck, hugging her. Katherine froze for a moment, but then relaxed and returned Elena's hug. She pulled back and looked at Elena with a slight twinkle in her eye. "You know, it's a good thing that Damon knows some vampires who are willing to make his recovery process go even faster," she said with a wink.

For the first time that day, Elena felt herself smile. Maybe it was possible that everything really was going to be all right.

What she still couldn't figure out is _how_ he was human again. She didn't even think that was possible. But maybe she was wrong. She had been wrong about plenty of things before. And she still didn't understand how the whole supernatural world worked.

Stefan came back and sat on the other side of Elena, but before he had a chance to speak Katherine jumped in.

"I told her everything. I'm so glad Damon's going to be okay," she said.

"Me too. Thank you, Elena. He wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for you," Stefan said with a small smile, grabbing her hand again and giving it a long, tight squeeze. "I mean it. I don't know how this all happened, but I do know that you saved him. And I will always be grateful for that." Elena nodded.

"I, uh, think I'm gonna go use the restroom." Elena said quietly. She got up and crossed the small lobby, and before she entered the bathroom she looked back toward her friends. Tyler and Caroline sat together in deep discussion, while Stefan and Katherine sat together in silence, his arms wrapped around her and her head on his shoulder. Everyone was where they belonged.

Even with the promise that Damon would be okay, Elena had never felt more alone. She was terrified that after all this, Damon would want nothing to do with her. She splashed some water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and too much crying. She pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail and tried to gain control of her breathing, something she hadn't really been able to do all day. She told herself one more time that everything was going to be okay, and tried to silence the voice inside her that kept telling her that wasn't true.

She went back out into the lobby and saw her friends all standing with the same doctor from before. As she approached, every head turned toward Elena and remained fixed on her until she had joined them. Caroline reached a hand out and wrapped it around one of Elena's.

"Damon is awake," Caroline said quietly.

"Normally, we would allow only family to see him at this point, but there's been a consensus that you should go talk to him first. So at the moment we're making an exception. Would you like to come see him?" The doctor asked Elena, his kind gaze fixed on her.

Elena could find no words, or the strength to produce them, so she simply nodded. Caroline kept a firm grip on Elena's hand and led her out of the lobby and down a hall, following the doctor.

They arrived at Damon's room and Caroline gave Elena's hand one more long squeeze before releasing it. The doctor pushed the door open and Elena slowly entered the room. She turned and watched him shut the door behind her.

She turned back toward the bed and her eyes immediately made contact with the piercing blue ones belonging to Damon. Eyes that, until two second earlier, she still hadn't been sure she would ever see again. She felt the tears start to roll down her cheeks.

When he spoke, Elena felt the room start to spin. All he said was one word, but the sound of it made her heart soar.

"Elena," he whispered, his voice feeble but soft and full of love. The tiniest of smiles graced his lips and she could just make out the mischievous twinkle in his eye that she had been afraid was gone forever.

She closed the distance between herself and bed. But instead of sitting in the chair beside it, she climbed gently onto the bed and lay down next to him, placing her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him.

She was met by the sound of his heartbeat, stronger than it had been before. He groaned slightly and she realized she was probably hurting him and tried to move away, but he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her even closer to him. She felt his lips graze the top of her head. Tears of joy and relief continued to stream from her eyes.

"I love you," she whispered, her voice soft but clear.

His reply was simple. But it told her that he wasn't gone. And that he was still hers. And he always would be. It was everything she needed to hear. And for the moment, nothing else mattered. They were together, and always would be.

"I love you. Forever."

***Author's note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! For anyone wondering, I DID rate this story "M" for a reason. And I promise it will get there. ;)  
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**Coming up: we learn how and why Damon became human again. You don't wanna miss it! Also, if you're wondering what the deal is with all those originals we love/hate/love to hate, you might wanna stick around. There's some juicy stuff coming up...**


	3. Chapter 3

***Author's note: Sorry this update took a little longer. I thought I was going to have this chapter done sooner. But I kept tweaking it. I hope you enjoy. Some important questions are answered! Yay!***

She could hear their laughter from the hallway before she even opened the door. It hit her that laughter had become somewhat of a foreign sound in her universe. She balanced the drink carrier and bags she carried in her hands as kicked open the door of the hospital room.

Damon was sitting up in bed, engaged in an animated conversation with Alaric. His face had regained its color, and although the bruises that covered his skin and the various tubes connecting him to the machines around him made it clear that he was not out of the woods yet, his demeanor showed that he was well on the road to recovery.

Alaric threw his head back with a loud laugh as Damon gestured wildly to him. Elena kicked the door shut behind her, and both men turned to face her. The room was still filled with the sound of laughter, accompanied by the quiet beep of the medical machines that served as a constant reminder of Damon's weakened condition.

"Hey you," Damon said with a smile that had grown even wider when he saw her. She set her load down on the table beside his bed and crossed to his bed.

"Hi," she said cheerfully before leaning down and giving him a short kiss. As she pulled away, Damon grabbed her hand and pulled her back toward him and kissed her again. The kiss was longer and deeper this time, and it was only when Alaric cleared his throat that Damon and Elena broke apart. Elena bit her lip and her cheeks flushed a bright red as she straightened up. Damon merely smirked.

"Hi, Ric. I'm Sorry," Elena said with a sheepish smile and a small laugh.

"No she's not," Damon replied quickly. Elena hit him in the chest playfully.

"Oh shut up."

"Hey, be gentle with me. My new human body is more fragile than my vampire one was," Damon taunted, grabbing Elena's hand and interweaving their fingers.

"Well I can see that some things haven't changed. You two are still twelve years old," Alaric said as he rolled his eyes at them.

Elena and Damon both laughed. She gave him another short kiss and turned to grab the bags she had brought.

"Who's hungry? I snuck in burgers from the Grill," Elena said as she pulled the food from the bags.

"Thank god. I'd rather drink blood than eat one more hospital meal," Damon said with a smirk as he snatched up one of the burgers. Elena sat on the side of the bed and the three of them ate in silence.

"Who's the last burger for?" Damon asked through a mouthful of food.

"Bonnie. She's on her way over. Said she had to talk to us about some stuff," Elena said and immediately there was tension in the air.

For the past two days, they had all been avoiding the question hanging over all of their heads- how was Damon's transformation even possible? Bonnie, who had disappeared a few days earlier, had called Elena and told her she had an answer, but had to "do more research" before she came to talk to them about it. Then this morning, she had called again and told Elena she would meet her at the hospital.

A moment later, the door opened and Bonnie strode through the doorway. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, and she was holding three very large, very old-looking grimoires in her arms.

She crossed and set them down on the end of Damon's bed.

"Hi, witchy. Good to see you," Damon said teasingly, but the sincerity in his voice was unmistakable.

"We'll see if you still feel that way after I tell you this," Bonnie said with a sigh. She pulled the other chair in the room up next to Alaric. The tension was palpable as Bonnie took a deep breath and shifted uncomfortably.

"When all of this stuff started happening with Mikael and Klaus, I started to do some research. I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help in the situation. I read through every grimoire I have, but quickly realized that a situation like this required power and resources greater than mine. I got in contact with Grams, and she told me that the Salem witches knew of the situation but refused to help me; which led me to believe that they _could_but for some reason they just wouldn't. After Klaus turned on us, I knew I had to do more. So I went as directly to the source as I could…"

"You went to Salem?" Elena asked in surprise. Bonnie nodded.

"I knew that I didn't have much time. So I drove there as fast as I could. I found an old with there who Grams said would help me get in contact with some of the Salem witches. She's the one who gave me these," Bonnie said as she gestured to the grimoires. "She let me keep them because she, uh, knew that in order for us to do what we needed to do she, she would have to harness more power than her body could handle."

Bonnie trailed off, the implications of her words hanging heavily in the air.

"She died?" Elena asked quietly. Bonnie nodded, her eyes filling with tears. Alaric placed a hand on her knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"She knew that she would. She said it seemed like a good enough cause to go," Bonnie said quietly and with a shaky voice. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and wiped her tears. "She helped me find a spell. According to the spell, a vampire could be made human again. It was possible."

Damon's breath caught in his throat and a small, barely audible gasp escaped his lips. Elena grabbed his hand and held it tightly.

"So she and I did the spell. But something went wrong. I had been aiming the spell at Klaus, not you, Damon," Bonnie turned to him and looked directly at him for the first time. "I'm so sorry. I thought that if we could do the spell and make Klaus human, he would be vulnerable enough to kill. I didn't know if it would even work on an original. I don't know how or why the spell was deflected to you, Damon. But somehow it was."

"So, I am 100% human?" Damon asked, his gaze fixed on Bonnie. "Is it permanent? What are the drawbacks? Because I'm sure no witch would create a spell like this without including…" Damon paused for a moment. "Side effects," he finished with a grim smile.

"You're 100% human. But you're right, there's more to it. They're not really side effects as much as they are, um, parameters. It's not permanent, no. The spell will wear off. But there's time. The spell will last for a year."

The weight of this reality took a moment to sink in. They had time. That was a huge relief to Elena. But a year? Only a year?

"So what happens a year from now?" Alaric spoke up for the first time, voicing the question that was now plaguing both Damon and Elena. There was a moment of anxious silence before Bonnie answered.

"Well. After a year, the spell will have worn off. And Damon will, um, die," Bonnie said quickly and apologetically.

Bonnie's last word hit Elena with so much force that she felt as she Bonnie had physically hit her. Her heart dropped into her stomach and all the air rushed out of her lungs. She tried to fight back the tears, but knew that it was useless. There were a few moments of tense silence.

Then Alaric whispered something in Bonnie's ear and they both stood quickly, almost in unison. Bonnie scooped up the grimoires.

"We're gonna leave you two alone," she whispered to Elena as she passed her, and in a moment she and Alaric had gone, closing the door behind them.

Elena stared down at Damon's bed, memorizing the woven pattern of the pale blue blankets. She didn't know what to do or say. She didn't want to see the look on Damon's face. Was he angry? Distressed? Sad? She tried to fight back her tears before looking up at him.

She was surprised to see him looking at her intently with a soft, small smile curling up the corners of his mouth. She looked at him quizzically.

"What are you smiling about, Damon? Did you hear what Bonnie was saying? A year from now you're going to bed dead. And not vampire-dead. Dead-dead. And you're smiling?" She felt herself becoming angry with him. Here she was, devastated at the idea that she only had a year left with him. And he was sitting there smiling at her as if there was nothing wrong. She pulled his hand from his, stood, and began pacing around the room. "I found you, Damon. It should have been impossible. But, by some miracle, I found you. And you're still alive. That should have been impossible too. But here you are," she gestured at him. The smile was still on his face and he was looking at her as though she was the most amusing person in the world, which made her even angrier. "We were supposed to have time, Damon!"

"We do, love," Damon said softly, his voice full of warmth and love. "That's exactly what we have, Elena. We have time."

"We have a year, Damon. ONE year." She was almost yelling at him now and the tears were streaming down her face again. "And, I'm sorry, but a year isn't enough. Maybe that makes me selfish. But I wanted more time. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, Damon. I was planning on you and me, forever," she said, and then realized that she had never told him any of this before. She stood, a few feet from his bed, and looked at him sitting there. His physical appearance had not changed at all, but he just looked so much more fragile to her now. She took a deep breath, and when she spoke again her voice was softer and calmer than before. "All I wanted was to be with you. And have a normal life, even though I knew that a normal life could never be in the cards for us. Until, by some miracle, you became a human again. Damon, the first time I heard your heartbeat, when I found you in the woods, the first thing that crossed my mind was that it couldn't be real. That it was too good to be true, because it would mean that you were like me now. And I knew that it would take another miracle, but that if I could save you, we would actually have a chance at a normal life. Together. But now that chance is… gone." Elena finished, staring at the floor. Tears rolled silently down her cheeks, and she watched them as they fell to the floor.

"Elena," Damon's gentle voice reached her ears. There was something in his voice that made her look up at him; a mix of pain, an apology, and overwhelming love. His face reflected all of the emotions that had been in his voice. He reached his hand out to her. "Come her," he said quietly, patting the bed next to him.

She walked back to the bed and gently climbed in next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She felt his lips against the top of her head and then he rested his head against hers.

With her head on his chest, the sound of his heartbeat was loud in her ear. It was steady and strong, as healthy as any she had ever heard. It was a bittersweet reality, that heartbeat.

"You need to know something," Damon whispered to her. "I could live 1,000 years with you and it wouldn't be enough. Did I want to have more than a year's worth of a normal life with you? Of course. But I would rather have one year with you than no time at all. And the fact that we get to spend that year together as humans is a greater gift than I ever could have asked for, Elena. I love you, and I will love you forever. And if forever is only a year for me, then I will love you every single second of that year. And it will be the best year of our lives, or at least of my life. At the end of the year, if I have to die, I'll die knowing that I loved you until the end, and that you loved me. That will make my entire life, death, existence, whatever you want to call it, that will make it worthwhile. And I'll be all right."

"You'll be all right? Well what about me, Damon?" Elena asked quietly, comforted by his words but still feeling slightly angry that he seemed so fine with this, with only having a year. Why was he so quick to accept his fate?

"You'll be all right too, Elena. After I'm gone, you'll find someone the will love you and that you can love. And have a normal life with. And you'll love them for the rest of your life." There was pain in Damon's voice as he said the words.

"I know you don't believe that. Damon's there's not going to be anyone else. Ever."

"Well that's what you said when you were with Stefan. And yet, here you and I are," Damon said, but instantly regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. He felt every muscle in Elena's body tense up. There was a stiff silence between them. Finally Elena laughed a cold laugh and when she spoke her voice was stony.

"Well I'm sorry for falling in love with you, Damon. I didn't realize that was wrong of me," Elena snapped, sitting up and trying to move away from him. He tried to wrap his arms around her again and she shook him off, standing up and moving away from the bed. She whipped around to face him.

"Okay, yes. When I was with Stefan I thought that I was going to love him forever. But things change, Damon. Some things happened that were beyond Stefan's or my control, and other things happened that Stefan and I had complete control over. We just grew apart. Became different people who wanted different things. And somewhere along the way, I fell in love with you. I know that I'll probably love Stefan forever, just like I'm sure that you'll always love Katherine forever, but it's just not in the same way as I did before, or as you loved Katherine before. You know who else I'm going to love forever? You. Sometimes you make me so angry that I wonder why the hell I do, but that's just the way it is. I love you. You're it for me, Damon. Whether you're a vampire or a human or a hybrid or whether you're dead. Even after you're gone, you will still be it for me. So don't tell me that I'll be all right. Don't tell me that I'll find someone else, because it's not true. And you know that. Or at least I would hope you know that by now."

"I do, I do, I do. Elena, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I shouldn't have said that," Damon said apologetically.

"No. You shouldn't have," Elena was still angry but felt herself starting to give in to him. Like she always did. She rocked back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet and played with the hem of her shirt. She refused to give in that easily. She tried to hold on to her anger, but could feel it slipping through her fingers

"Elena, I'm sorry," there was an edge of desperation in Damon's voice that made her lose any and all remaining anger that she was harboring toward him. She looked up and gave him a tiny smile. She crossed back over to his bed, sitting down on the edge facing Damon. She put her hands on either side of his face.

"You're an ass," she whispered.

"I know," Damon replied, a small smirk forming and his eyes sparking mischievously. She pulled his face toward hers and gave him a long kiss; the kind of kiss that she would have continued to give him earlier if Alaric had not been there.

One of Damon's arms encircled her waist and pulled her closer to him as the other came up to the back of her head. Damon deepened the kiss, his tongue pressing against her lips until it was granted admission. Their tongues danced together, darting in and out of each other's mouths. Damon's lips blazed a trail of kisses away from her mouth and down her neck, to what he knew all too well was her most vulnerable spot.

A shiver rolled down on her spine as he bit the tender skin of her neck gently. A smile spread across Elena's face at the irony of this act. Damon's lips were traveling back towards her own, and she met them hungrily. His hands traced gentle, slow circles on her back and cheek. Elena grabbed onto his hair tightly and continued to deepen the kiss.

Damon pulled back slightly and laughed when he saw Elena frowning at him.

"What's wrong?" She asked grumpily, her swollen lips missing the contact with his.

"Nothing's wrong. Do you know how much I love you?" Damon asked, brushing her hair off her face.

"I think I have a pretty good idea, yeah," Elena said with a smile before bringing her lips to meet his once more.

The sound of the door opening startled them both, and they broke apart. Elena flushed bright red when she saw Damon's nurse standing in the doorway, glaring at them disapprovingly.

"I thought that we were very specific about there being NO strenuous physical activity," she snapped at them, but with a slight smile brightening her expression.

"Believe me, I didn't find that strenuous at all," Damon said with a smirk. Elena smacked him in the chest.

"Would you shut up?" She hissed at him through clenched teeth. She turned back to the nurse. "I'm so sorry. It won't happen again." Damon groaned in disapproval and Elena glared at him before he could make another verbal retort.

"Good. But you'll need to excuse us for a moment, Miss Gilbert. We need to take him down for some testing to make sure he's all good to be released," the nurse said as she rolled over the wheelchair that had been sitting in the doorway.

Elena watched as she helped Damon into the wheelchair, reminded again of how fragile he was now. He smiled at her.

"This is my favorite part. Nothing quite like being their little lab rat," Damon said with a smirk and a wink.

"You keep that up and it's going to be a very bumpy ride for you," his nurse said as she began to wheel him out of the room.

"Will someone call when he's done with the testing?" Elena asked the nurse when they stopped just outside of Damon's door.

"Sure, sweetie. We'll call you," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," Elena bent down and put her hands on the wheelchair's armrests. "I'll see you in a little while," Damon nodded and smiled at her. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said and she gave him a short kiss before straightening up and looking at his nurse. "Take good care of him."

"He doesn't make it easy, but I'll try," she said with a laugh. Elena laughed and blew Damon a kiss before the nurse turned and wheeled him down the hall. Elena headed in the direction of the lobby, on her way to wait in the hospital's dingy "cafeteria".

She felt her vibrate in her pocket, and pulled it out to see Stefan's name flash onto the screen.

"Hey, Stefan." Elena said cheerfully. "They just took Damon down for some testing, but they said he should be good to be discharged soon. So I'm gonna go wait for them to say he's good to go."

"Actually, Elena, could you come over? We have to talk," Stefan said, sounding uncertain and tense.

"Okay, sure. I'll be there in a few," Elena said uncertainly, feeling pretty sure that it was unlikely any good could come out of the talk that Stefan needed to have with her.

And the next words out of Stefan's mouth only confirmed that fear.

"It's about Jeremy."

***Dun dun dun. Cliffhangers. Yay. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are so appreciated! Honestly. Will try to have the next chapter up this week/weekend. We'll see how it goes with the prep for finals that I have to do this week... **


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